Fish Farm
1997
Woodcut
61x74cm
ENQUIRE
My first job in Shetland was feeding sea trout in cages at Tresta Voe working for the pioneer farmer of sea trout Paul Featherstone. Coming from a very heavily industrialized place I felt that this job was like going to work in paradise every day but as winter gales set in under darkening sky’s I realised that being out on the water can be very dangerous indeed and I also soon got bored with throwing pellets to caged fish every day.
‘Fish Farm ‘is amongst the first woodcuts I made in Shetland, and I very much had the Japanese masters like Hokusai in mind when I was trying to make sense of whirl of frenzied fish as they rise to be fed from the hands of the). Woodcut is a perfect media for forcing unformed or unclear ideas into sharp focus because the constraints of cutting into a wooden block forces clear decisions to be made with no room for accident or mistake. My attitude to fish farming was to change in later years but this print is mostly celebratory, and it won first prize at the Shetland Open Art exhibition at the Bonhoga as well as being included as part of a permanent display in the aqua culture section at Shetland Museum.
‘Fish Farm ‘is amongst the first woodcuts I made in Shetland, and I very much had the Japanese masters like Hokusai in mind when I was trying to make sense of whirl of frenzied fish as they rise to be fed from the hands of the). Woodcut is a perfect media for forcing unformed or unclear ideas into sharp focus because the constraints of cutting into a wooden block forces clear decisions to be made with no room for accident or mistake. My attitude to fish farming was to change in later years but this print is mostly celebratory, and it won first prize at the Shetland Open Art exhibition at the Bonhoga as well as being included as part of a permanent display in the aqua culture section at Shetland Museum.